Misconception

When I see a child, on the street alone, dirty, begging for money and holding a bottle of glue to his face, my initial thought as to where he has come from is, “Oh I guess his parents died.” I have come to realize that is a misconception.

After doing a lot of interviews with children who live either in group homes, or are in boarding school through an organization, I have come to learn where most of these children really come from. It is true that some of them are “true” orphans, and that they really have no family to turn to, but that is definitely the minority.


Something that just doesn’t register for most of us, who come from a loving, western, home, is the idea of a parent having no regard for their child. The idea that a parent would care so little resources that knowing your child is on the street begging for money and sniffing glue, is an alright option for them, is impossible to imagine.

After the short time that I have been here I have discovered that a lot of these children do in fact have homes, or that somewhere their family does exist. That being said, the situation begs the question, what is it that is so bad where they came from, that a life on the streets is the better option? I may never know the answer to that question, due to the fact that I will probably never experience the suffering and Heartbreak that these children face. So, what are the scenarios that cause these children end up on the street? I have thought about it for some time and come up with a broad explanation of the ones that I run into most, and I think you will be surprised at some of them.

The first reason that a child would live on the street is the standard, no brainier one. A child who has NO family, at all, is forced to live a life on the streets. In a country where even educated adults have an extremely hard time finding a job, an uneducated child is pigeon holed into the street life. The HIV/ AIDS epidemic, economic stresses, as well as intertribal clashing have caused the mortality rate in this country to soar. I don’t know of one child that I have met here that has not experienced some death in their immediate family. There are children who have no one to turn to, either their whole family has passed-away, or they are not in contact with any part of them, making them “true” orphans. This scenario is very much the minority, in fact, out of the many children that I have talked to about the issue; I can barley think of three who would fall under this category. Needless to say this is one of the most heartbreaking scenarios for any child, to be completely alone in the world. I have hope for these children though, Because it is not an isolated problem to this country, it occurs all over the world, I am confident that other nations who have been more successful in solving the issue of orphaned children can pull together and inform nations who are struggling with the issue, on effective ways to deal with orphaned children.

I know that this post is long so I am deciding to explain the next scenario in my next post. I am not sure if anyone really has a desire to know this, but it has been on my mind lately and I have really wanted to document it, and I thought this a good outlet for that.

Peace in Christ